appeared in an unprecedented number of languages and editions across
Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and influenced the con-
struction of maps up through the nineteenth century, when England’s im-
perialist exploration of the “dark continent” was at a height.^1 In 1600 , John
Pory brought the Moor’s story into England and English as The History
and Description of Africa, probably basing his edition on a Latin translation
of Gian Battista Ramusio’s Italian text, itself (we now know from the dis-
covery of an unpublished manuscript) significantly different from the orig-
inal Italian version.^2 Bolstering his own and John Leo’s authority, Pory
included within his translation Richard Hakluyt’s endorsement that it was
“the verie best, the most particular, and methodicall” description of “the
countries, peoples, and affairs of Africa” “that ever was written, or at least
that hath come to light.”^3 And the accolades go on.^4 More recently,
Natalie Zemon Davis has tagged it a “bestseller,” while Kim Hall has
declared it “the single most authoritative travel guide on Africa...for
three centuries.”^5
Other, largely classical, descriptions of Africa had, of course, already
come to light, usually within more expansive cosmographies that mapped
Africa as the “third part of the world.” But what has made The History
uniquely interesting, authoritative, even spectacular, then and now, is the fact
that its embedded author was, in fact, a Moor. And not just any Moor, but an
extraordinary Moor who had a significant foothold both in Islamic Africa and
in Western Christendom. From at least Pory onward, The History and De-
scription of Africahas been touted as the provocative evidence of its author’s
unusual negotiation of two religiously and culturally distinct worlds. Using
images Shakespeare will hand, now famously, to Othello, Pory, for one, spec-
ulates in his introduction that had John Leo
not at the first beene a More and aMahumetanin religion, and most
skilfull in the languages and customes of the ArabiansandAfricans,and
for the most part trauelled inCarouans,or under the authoritie, safe
conduct, and commendation of great princes: I maruell much how euer he
should haue escaped so manie thousands of imminent dangers...For how
many desolate cold mountaines, and huge, drie, and barren deserts passed
he? How often was he in hazard to haue beene captiued, or to haue had
his throte cut by the prouling Arabians,and wilde Mores? And how hardly
manie times escaped he the Lyons greedie mouth, and the deuouring iaws
of the Crocodile?”(Pory, 6 )Cultural Traffic 139